Remaking The Rules Of Engagement

By Douglas Waller With Reporting by John F. Dickerson/Washington

The day Tom Daschle got Jim Jeffords to leave the G.O.P. and throw power to the Democrats, Daschle phoned George W. Bush as a peace gesture. "What's the protocol here?" Bush asked. After a political coup, does the President call the new Senate majority leader or vice versa? They both chuckled. No matter who dials first, the two most powerful politicians in Washington will be talking a lot more than they have in the past five months.

The ceremony this week transferring Senate control from Republicans to Democrats is a subtle one. The presiding officer simply recognizes Daschle instead of Republican Trent Lott when the two come to the floor. But Bush, Daschle and Lott know the power shift is momentous, so all three have new battle plans.

Jeffords' defection "isn't going to change what the President believes," insists Bush counselor Karen Hughes. But the package is being rewrapped. Worried that Democrats have succeeded in painting him as hard-right, Bush is going green with trips to Sequoia National Park last week and the Florida Everglades this week. Speeches are being salted with soothing "compassion-speak." Moderate Senate Republicans are being watched like Cuban athletes on tour. Bush has invited Rhode Island's Lincoln Chafee to a private dinner and phoned Chafee's colleague Maine's Olympia Snowe to congratulate her on the child-credit increase she got into the tax bill. (Never mind that he opposed her provision before.)

Daschle has warned his new committee chairmen to make bipartisan noises when they take the gavels. This week he wants to finish the education bill, on which the White House and Ted Kennedy have been cooperating. But after that, life gets uncomfortable for Bush.

Democrat Carl Levin plans to pick apart W.'s missile-defense scheme from his new perch atop the Armed Services Committee, and to probe oil-company price gouging as head of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Patrick Leahy will slow down the schedule for considering judicial nominees to give Democrats more time to stockpile ammunition against conservative ones. Next week Daschle plans to bring up a patient's bill of rights measure that Kennedy has sponsored with Senators John Edwards and John McCain. Bush has threatened to veto it. Says Joe Biden, who heads the Foreign Relations Committee: "Bush can't treat us like the Texas legislature anymore."

Republicans are putting on war paint. Lott is under fire from conservatives who think he has been too accommodating. So far, he isn't in danger of being ousted. Lott insists that "I know how" to be minority leader.

He and his allies are plotting to make life difficult for Daschle. Conservative Jesse Helms plans to force Democrats to vote on an education amendment cutting off federal funds to districts that refuse to let Boy Scouts use their schools because the groups won't admit gay members. Two of the endangered districts are in Kennedy's Massachusetts. G.O.P. whip Don Nickles has tax-cut amendments to tack on to next week's patient's bill of rights. And Lott threatens a filibuster to keep Democrats from organizing the Senate under their control if Daschle won't let him have floor votes on Bush nominees that are bottled up in committee.

Daschle insists he won't make that concession. Will the Republicans try to force his hand? The threatened G.O.P. filibuster could shut down the Senate. Of course, when the Republicans tried that in 1995-96, their bomb blew up in their face.

--By Douglas Waller, with reporting by John F. Dickerson/Washington